Bismillāhi r-Rahmāni r-Rahīm. Praise to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, blessings and peace be
upon our Lord Muhammad the Prince of the first and the last, and upon his family and
companions. Glory to You, we can never duly praise You, You are as You have praised
Yourself. O our Lord, You are praised by heavens and earths and by all between them and
by whatever else You wish, Praise, Majesty and Splendour. Glorified is our Lord, who can
stop if You give, who can give if You deny, who can turn back Your decree, and what can
good luck do against You, there is no power and no strength but with Allah, Most High,
Majestic.

O Allah, open our hearts' locks by Your dhikr and shower upon us Your favour and grant us
of Your grace and make us to be among Your righteous servants, those who have no fear and
no sorrow.

O our Lord, lead us into Your Mercy along with Your righteous servants, together with those
who have no fear and no sorrow. O our Lord, we ask You to grant us Your Mercy and Your
Forgiveness and safety from every sin and the bounty of every goodness and the favour of
paradise and salvation from hellfire. ya Māliku, ya 'Azīzu, ya Ghaffār, ya Jalīlu, ya Sattār.
Amīn, Amīn.

O Lord, may this prayer be acceptable to You, forgive us and pardon us, have mercy on us,
and forgive us and guide us, and straighten our affairs and the affairs of all Muslims and give
us victory over the unbelievers for the honour of him upon whom You sent the Sūrat al-
Fātiha.

Man, how can a human being be close to Allah Almighty? What must a human being do in
this world? What must he strive to do? Eh, for your own animal soul [nafs] you gather all you
can eat, and you gather more than you need. You busy yourself with that, but all that will
stay behind in this world, dunya. What you should try to learn in this world is closeness to
Allah Almighty.

In what way can we be close to Allah Almighty? Allah Almighty is closer to us than anything
else, but what we mean by being close is that man loves closeness, he loves the one who is
close to him, he favours one to whom he is close. If a person is close to Allah Almighty, Allah
Almighty favours that servant in this world and the next. If you want to be favoured, try to
draw close to Allah. If you do not want to be favoured, then that is your business. Whoever
does not want to be saved, there is no good for them in this world or the next.

How can man be close to Allah Almighty? Whoever spends much time in remembrance of
Allah [dhikr], he is close to Allah. Whoever remembers Allah much will be beloved by Allah.
Whoever remembers Allah frequently, Allah will grant him of His Divine Love. His heart will
be filled with love for Allah. Man's heart can never be filled with dunya. If you were to fling
the whole world into a man's heart, it would be as if you had flung one tiny sesame seed into
the whole wide world. The heart can be filled by nothing but the love for Allah Almighty.
For whom is Allah Almighty's love lawful [halal]? It is halal for the one who remembers Him
much. Therefore, make an effort to remember Allah often! Say: Allah! Say: O Lord! Say, O
Lord, so that Allah Almighty may revive your heart with Divine Love. If one's heart is
revived, one's body is alive and living. The servant whose heart is revived by Allah Almighty,
will not decay in his grave. He will rise up just as he was buried. Man's life is one of form as
well as one of essence. The life of appearances he shares also with other animals. His real life
is in the remembrance of Allah [dhikr]. Allah Almighty gives real life to those who engage in
remembrance. Their life does not resemble the life of other animals.

Whoever says Allah, his life will be sweet. Whoever does not say Allah, his life will be bitter.
His life is bitter as poison. The world will crush them. The world is like a mill: they are
thrown into that mill and ground, crushed and sifted. And they have no happiness in the
world. Because they do not believe in Allah and the hereafter, hatred and jealousy crush and
drain them every day of their life. They contract all manner of illness and complaints. They
become repositories of afflictions. And in the world they are defeated by sorrow. In their
graves fire lies in store for them. Fire which they sent ahead for themselves.

Therefore, whoever remembers Allah will be saved, while whoever does not say Allah, must
suit himself. It is up to him. Whoever uses his mind will say Allah. Whoever does not use his
mind will not remember Allah.

For how long has this world existed? There is no one who can give an answer to this. Neither
the one hanging out at the coffee shop, nor the university teacher can answer this. Neither the
heads of state, nor their prime ministers can give an answer. Neither old nor young can give
an answer. If there is anyone who can say for how long this world has existed, he should step
forth and say so. No. Forget about how long this world has existed, leave it. There is no one
who even knows for how long he himself has been in this world. He will say: I can remember
it from the time I was 3 years old. I can remember it since I was 5 years old. I can remember
it since I was 2 or 2,5 years old. All right, so did you come into being at that time?